der Wandersmann's occasional thoughts and pics

Wish I could help dW. This is far beyond anything I know about the pc.

Ummm... perhaps it is time to go through the files to see if you really need them all?

It's good to have you bak dW. I don't know much about p.c. but I will tell you what I would've done if I was to be in your place. I would keep an exterior back up files on an exterior storage unit. Then I would "skan" the files for the ones those I don't much use or refer to, and place them on an exterior storage unit and put them in my archive. This way, I -may- have enough space on the hard drive for the stuff that I often use.

When you said you're very cautious when it comes to using p.c. That reminded me of my own mother when she first learned to type her exam papers on MS Word (She was an English teacher, and used to type the exam paper on the type writer, and photocopy the rest). Well, she was so scared that she would keep me by her side in case a red line appeared! and she would screem "OH! Mays! what should I do??? Should I press this button! I won't break the system, will I???" lol lol lol..

anyway, Hope that helps

P.S. been missing you

I know nothing 'bout this...
Sorry dW I can't help you...
But your friends might help you..

Any words of wisdom? I ain't got any. I know nothing about black magic, which I have a strong feeling is the case with most computer-related items.

I think Moadul has the right idea, put most (or all) on an external HD (they are very cheap with large capacity,also quite fast)and have key info on your computer.Have the HD permanently connected or plug in as needed. That is what I do. I put all my b/ups there.(100+ Gb)

I think Moadul has the right idea, put most (or all) on an external HD (they are very cheap with large capacity, also quite fast) and have key info on your computer. Have the HD permanently connected or plug in as needed. That is what I do. I put all my b/ups there.(100+ Gb)

dW, you think YOU have problems with storage space? I'm in a much tighter situation. My computer has a puny, microscopic 10 Gig Hard Drive. And it used to only have on the average 3.6 Gig of Free Space. Luckily for me, through some recent serendipity, I discovered 600 Meg of old Opera versions / Snapshots remnants that were supposed to have been uninstalled already. I just didn't know of this 3rd location to manually delete Files after an Uninstall. So, after I deleted those 600 Meg of Opera remnants, it brought me up to 4.22 Gig of Free Space. But, then a couple of days after that, I installed 13 friggin' Windows XP Updates. That ate up some space and now my Hard Drive is a little bit back down to on the average 3.9 Gig of Free Space.

Guess what though? Theoretically, by all accounts, my Hard Drive IS already beyond FULL. I ran a manual Anti-Virus Scan recently and noticed that it actually scanned 12 Gig of Files!!! Remember, my Hard Drive is only 10 Gig. So, if it wasn't for Data Compression, my Hard Drive would be full. Consequently, in a manner of speaking, I'm already doing what that Huckleberry Finn Jim said couldn't be done. I've crammed 2 gallons of Data into a 1 gallon jug.

As to a possible solution suggestion for you?
Hmmm? A starting point would be what Zaph suggested. Start going through your stuff and see what all you don't need and chuck it. There's bound to be plenty of that with that many Gigs. Recently, to create myself some more Hard Drive Space, I've done that myself. That plus I've been going through my Pics and sizing them down to a 626px Height. That is the full height at which Pics will display in my IrfanView Window. I had been noticing that a lot of Pics that had a taller pixel height had been displaying a little bit distorted unless you zoomed them a couple of notches.

I guess you could get some Flash Drives and dump some of your stuff into them to create yourself some space while you sort out what to keep and what to purge.

I think an external hard drive would be the solution. They come a lot cheaper than in the beginning. I don't know your computer specifics, so make sure it can be connected.
Also I have been told a file isn't safely backed up unless it is at leats at two different locations ( teach told me, I think he is referring to a raid solution, though ) so you might want to burn some dvd's too.
Unless you're very busy tomorrow?
Good luck.

I will never understand how this machines work! I am happy to have a nice young man who fix this problems when it is needed! You can borrow him!!
But I hope you soon will ahve them going!!

Somebody told about burning dvd's - that's my way out. I keep all the photos and some archived data on dvd's. Thinking about buying an external hard drive, too.
Good luck, DW